Top Stories for Tuesday March 11, 2008
Town Meeting Of Minds: Middlebury Makes Legislative History For Reshaping Downtown
By Ed Barna
 When questions arise about the interpretation of laws, those seeking answers go to the legislative history behind what was enacted.
When the future looks back at Town Meeting 2008, they will see the substantial margins with which two key special articles passed: 1,535-829 for bonding to build a second in-town bridge; and 1,358-829 for a charter change enabling a 1 percent local tax to be added to one or more of the current taxes on sales and use, rooms, meals, and alcoholic beverages. Fro that, they may conclude that the measures easily sailed through.
But in fact the floor meeting Monday, attended by roughly 250 residents included a thorough examination of those two measures, which would be voted the following day by Australian ballot. (The proposed $6,383,774 budget, up about 5.8 percent, went through an equally compressive wringer before getting voice vote approval with only scattered nays.)
[ more ] Beth Diamond Receives 2008 Kimberly Krans Women Who Change The World Award
 WomenSafe has announced Beth Diamond as the 2008 recipient of the Kimberly Krans Women Who Change the World Award. This award is presented annually to a woman in Addison County and Rochester whose outstanding work and achievements have furthered the safety of women and children in our community. It is named after Kimberly Krans, a longtime supporter and dear friend of the WomenSafe community.
[ more ] New Internet Magazine Helping Vermont Attract International and “Green” Visits
By Ed Barna
James Kelly grew up in Maine and Massachusetts, and when he decided to return to New England from southern California, his father said, “I thought you hated the cold!”
Though living in Weybridge is bringing back old coping skills, Kelly doesn't think temperature is one of the state's strong points. What warms his heart, he said, is getting to know the people of a state that in his experience is unique in its combination of hardiness, resourcefulness, kindness, and willingness to come to the aid of others.
Now he's trying to help the world see Vermont in that light, through an Internet magazine called Vermont Nation. He said it wouldn't be right to call it simply an Internet tourism site, because he wants to be able to express a viewpoint-for instance on “green hotels,” one of the major components of Vermont Nation.
[ more ] A Stitch In Time
By Mike Cameron
 Please allow me to qualify myself at the outset of this piece.
I can neither sew or quilt and have little or no mechanical aptitude. But like many who are challenged in this respect we simply envy people who have these skills.
There doesn't seem, at least for my money, anything that says home and hearth more clearly than a nice comfy quilt crafted by someone who underestands and enjoys this special process.
A recent visit to the home of Walt and Peg Reed on Jersey Street in Addison gave this reporter some insight into that process.
Over a hot cup of coffee and some seriously delicious home-made doughnuts, my brief but thorough education into the world of sewing, quilting and technology began, but first some introductions.
Four of us sat around the dining room table. Peg, her husband Walt, her brother-in-law Wayne Dwyre and your’s truly. Oh and let’s not forget for a moment Wayne’s Scottish Terrier “Queenie” and the Reed’s Himalain kitten “Harley,” short for Harley Davidson Purrrfect Cat!
[ more ] This Week In Pictures
 Select pictures from this week's edition of The Valley Voice [ more ]
|
Top